2008/08/30

Recently I plugged in my old HD with about 15 solid days worth of music.. and I'm already tired of it all. I easily tire of music. I went a long time (over a year) without really listening to any at all and I didn't really crave any.

I wish there were public access pianos. If I were moving into an apartment complex I would much rather it had a nice piano than a nice pool. Quite a few complexes in Davis had pianos in the study room. They also had pools. Apartments here have nothing for the community. I've never even seen an apartment with laundry machines, but I'm sure they exist (and to be fair, a lot of people have their own).

I think classical music education is done all wrong. Why is it that students are taught how to play other peoples music for the majority of their education, and only those who really pursue it for a career ever get into composition? I wish classical educators would jazz things up, so to speak, and get students to CREATE rather than interpret. Rather than look at a piece of music and play it how you think the composer wanted it, take it and from the start assume it isn't complete. Assume it needs work, and you can make it better. Change the music. Ad lib. Theme and variation.

Imagine if all painters did for the first 10 years of their education was to copy masters' works. They would surely learn the techniques necessary to create masterful art, and they'd probably learn a lot of art history. But how many would bore of the practice and give up on art all together? Why do we teach music this way?

Whenever I go back home I hear Peter playing song after song that I've never heard before. Always reading. I hope next time he tries breaking away from the page more. Sight read once and then play from memory with your own thoughts filling in the gaps.

2008/08/13

It really bothers me the way both John Stewart and Stephen Colbert say "an historic." Even if by some bizarre chance it turned out to be technically correct, it doesn't sound right and is harder to say than "a historic." If they weren't pronouncing the 'h' it would be one thing, but they are, and so they're wrong.

Unfortunately according to google, use of "an historic" is fairly prevalent with "a historic" at 7,780,000 hits and "an historic" at less than half that, but still a significant 3,440,000.